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HPU Faculty and Students Recognized for Research and Innovation

HIGH POINT, N.C., April 2, 2018 – Members of the High Point University community frequently conduct, publish and share research and creative works in a variety of ways. Below is a recap of research initiatives from the past month.

Pharmacy Professor’s Research Featured in Two Articles

Research by Dr. Christy Sherrill, assistant professor of ambulatory care in the Fred Wilson School of Pharmacy at HPU, appeared in two pharmacy publications recently. Her work studying the pharmacist’s role in providing Medicare annual wellness visits was included in articles by Managed Health Care Connect and Drug Topics. Her study found that patients are satisfied with licensed clinical pharmacist practitioners conducting their wellness visits in the place of their physician.

“This is an opportunity for pharmacists to expand their services and practice at the top of their licenses,” says Sherrill. “For physicians, partnering with pharmacists to provide this service for patients is an advantageous delegation of responsibility. For patients, it’s the chance for them to have these visits conducted by another health care professional who can provide a different perspective and address any medication-related questions.”

HPU Professors Review Research on Exercise for Shoulder Injuries

HPU professors Dr. Alexis Wright, Dr. Eric Hegedus, Dr. Daniel Tarara and Dr. Steve Dischiavi, along with Samantha Ray of Duquesne University, published a paper in the British Journal of Sports Medicine reviewing the research on exercises for overhead athletes with shoulder injuries. In the paper, they highlight the gap between the exercises tested in the research literature and what is prescribed in clinical practice. The discrepancy, they argue, can be attributed to the difficulty of designing research studies involving more complex exercises.

“This study was inspired by a swimmer who had been prescribed very basic exercises for her injuries that didn’t replicate the physical demands placed on overhead athletes,” says Wright, assistant professor of physical therapy at HPU. “Unfortunately, research studies are often designed with very basic exercise prescription because the treatment interventions are to be easily reproducible by the reader. We need to get better at designing research studies with more complex exercises so we can show that evidence-based practice does in fact include these higher-level exercises.”

Dr. Alexis Wright

Dr. Eric Hegedus

Dr. Daniel Tarara

Dr. Steve Dischiavi

HPU Students, Faculty Participate in Cybersecurity Training

Pictured from left to right, Sydney Boratto, Kyle Hoffpauir, Cam Corso and Nathan Markle take part in a cybersecurity training hosted by Sandia National Laboratories.

Roger Shore, associate professor of computer science, and HPU students Sydney Boratto, Kyle Hoffpauir, Nathan Markle and Cam Corso attended TracerFire, a cybersecurity training hosted by Sandia National Laboratories. The workshop covered incident response, forensic investigation and live analysis on file systems, memory and malware. It also included a forensic incident response exercise in which participants competed on teams using the techniques they learned. The teams consisted of four students from different universities, and two of the HPU students helped their teams win first and second place.

Math Students Win Awards at MAA Southeastern Section Meeting

Two HPU mathematics majors won awards for top undergraduate presentations at the Southeastern Section meeting of the Mathematical Association of America. Joanna Fass won an award for her presentation “MatrixToe: 1s and 0s battle for domination,” research mentored by Dr. Adam Graham-Squire. Isaac Shore won an award for his presentation “Disease spread on networks,” research mentored by Dr. Laurie Zack. Students Alexis Newton and Sarah Poiani also attended the meeting and teamed up with Fass and Shore for a math jeopardy competition.

“These awards indicate the outstanding work our students are doing and the success our department is having in encouraging them to participate in meaningful research during their time as undergraduates,” says Dr. Adam Graham-Squire, assistant professor of mathematics.

Dr. Matthew Carlson, assistant professor of English at HPU, and several English majors attended the annual convention of Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society, in downtown Cincinnati. Two of the students, seniors Sarah Anderle and Elisa Mattingly, gave presentations of their research. Anderle’s presentation applied the ideas of postcolonial theorist Ngugi wa Thiong’o in a reading of Tsitsi Dangarembga’s novel

“Proposals were submitted by English students from all over the country, so this was a huge achievement for Sarah and Elisa,” says Carlson. “Attending the convention was a great experiential learning opportunity for all who participated.”

Chemistry Students, Professors Share Research at National Meeting

ctured from left to right are Robert Glass, Kyra Gillard, Lauren Pferdmenges, Kaylee Campbell, Rebecca Ulrich, Kaitlyn Griffith, Nick Cutrona and Riccardo De Cataldo taking part in the 255th American Chemical Society National Meeting in New Orleans.

Students and faculty from the Department of Chemistry at HPU participated in the 255th American Chemical Society National Meeting in New Orleans. Rebecca Ulrich and Kyra Gillard gave oral presentations discussing their research on molecules that disarm antibiotic resistant bacteria. Nick Cutrona, Robert Glass, Kaylee Campbell, Lauren Pferdmenges, Kaitlyn Griffith and Riccardo De Cataldo each gave poster presentations on topics including the synthesis of novel compounds to combat MRSA, polymer chemistry, and the use of biophysical techniques to study biological systems. Faculty members Dr. Meghan Blackledge, Dr. Pamela Lundin, Dr. Keir Fogarty and Dr. Heather Miller mentored the projects. In addition to the student presentations, Miller and Fogarty gave talks on their innovative pedagogical work at HPU, which focuses on peer-mediated learning and construction of hands-on models as educational tools in the chemistry curriculum. The students were generously supported by HPU and were also awarded travel grants from the Central North Carolina chapter of the American Chemical Society. Ulrich also received a prestigious travel grant from the national Division of Organic Chemistry.

“This was an incredible opportunity to showcase the caliber of work we are doing at HPU at a national event,” says Ulrich, an HPU senior who presented in a session with graduate students and faculty. “I’ve been involved in research since my freshman year, and it has taught me how to think critically, analyze problems and think outside the box when I’ve faced problems in my research projects. I’m grateful for the opportunities HPU and the chemistry department have provided for me to do research and share my project with the scientific community through presentations at meetings like this.”